Hi Five Oakers,
I’ve got four things I want to share with you today.
#1 – This weekend is our last week (for now) of the “To Raise a Family” series. The subject is “Teaching the Heart.” We’ll be talking about making God’s grace our curriculum.
#2 – This weekend is not the final week of the series. I plan to return to it at least two or three times throughout the year. Most likely on Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, but maybe one or two other times.
#3 – We launch our “For” campaign series the following
weekend (September 28/29). On that weekend we will be distributing a daily
devotional book written by several members of our Group Life team and me. We
need you there for the launch of this series, and we’d love for you to start on
the devotional on the very next day.
#4 – The “For” campaign is based on John 3:16—“For God so
loved.” Campaigns at Five Oaks are about spiritual growth, but the
“capital” portion of the campaign includes raising funds for three areas of
ministry.
FOR Land [Expanding our local ministry capacity]
We are raising funds to pay for 9.5 acres adjacent to the south side of our property. We want to be good stewards of the future. As an estimated 20K people move within a 5-minute drive of the campus, we want to be ready. This purchase accounts for the majority of the money we need to raise, and we want to pay for the land without incurring any long-term debt.
FOR Impact [Extending our global ministry reach]
Part of the money raised will be dedicated to global Impact so we can extend our reach over and above the annual Impact budget. We are still weighing our options, so more information is forthcoming, but our criteria include working with existing ministry partners and a hands-on opportunity for serving within this project.
FOR Ministry [Empowering our church’s ministry potential]
If you’ve seen the upgrades to the Children’s wing, you can imagine what our designer is planning for weekend Children’s ministry in the CLC. He is also working on information kiosks and wall displays that tell our story of local and global impact. Our offices are over capacity and need an upgrade. The furniture is about 30 years old (it was used when it was donated to us in 1999). And we need to strategically staff for future growth.
We'll have a lot more details when the campaign starts in two weeks, but for now, please commit to join us for this five-week journey. Pray for God's continued direction, empowering and guidance.
Blessings,
Pastor Henry
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